{"id":164236,"date":"2026-03-15T16:19:21","date_gmt":"2026-03-15T16:19:21","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/164236\/"},"modified":"2026-03-15T16:19:21","modified_gmt":"2026-03-15T16:19:21","slug":"mamdanis-first-100-days-mayor-hailed-as-trade-unionist-at-heart-at-irish-american-labor-luncheon","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/164236\/","title":{"rendered":"MAMDANI\u2019S FIRST 100 DAYS: Mayor hailed as \u2018trade unionist at heart\u2019 at Irish-American labor luncheon"},"content":{"rendered":"

Friday, March 13, marked the 72nd day of Zohran Mamdani\u2019s term as mayor. amNewYork is following Mamdani around his first 100 days in office<\/a>. We are closely tracking his progress on fulfilling campaign promises, appointing key leaders to government posts, and managing the city\u2019s finances. Here\u2019s a summary of what the mayor did Friday.<\/p>\n

Mayor Zohran Mamdani<\/a> got a warm welcome on Friday from one of the city\u2019s most influential labor leaders at a Manhattan luncheon hosted by the James Connolly Irish American Labor Coalition, where he was praised as a true union ally.<\/p>\n

John Samuelsen, the international president of the Transport Workers Union<\/a> and president of the James Connolly Coalition, introduced Mamdani as \u201ca trade unionist at heart,\u201d pointing to his support for nurses during their six-week labor fight earlier this year.<\/p>\n

\u201cHe recognizes that the pathway to economic security for working people is through the trade union movement, it\u2019s not through political parties,\u201d Samuelsen said. \u201cZohran is a trade unionist; he\u2019s with us.\u201d<\/p>\n

Mamdani, in turn, leaned into the room and its history. Quoting Irish labor leader James Connolly, he said, \u201cThe cause of labor is the cause of Ireland, and the cause of Ireland is the cause of labor.\u201d He then tied that history directly to New York.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhen I think about Irish Americans and the history of this city, it is the realization that the two are one and the same,\u201d Mamdani said. \u201cYou cannot tell the story of this city without the story of Irish Americans. You cannot tell the story of trade unionism in this city without the story of Irish Americans.\u201d<\/p>\n

The transit union\u2019s founder, Michael Quill,<\/a> was an Irish-born labor firebrand whose legacy still looms large in New York politics. Quill became a folk hero to many union members during the 1966 transit strike, when he led a 12-day shutdown that paralyzed the city and helped win a 15% wage increase for more than 30,000 workers.<\/p>\n

\"mayorMayor Zohran Mamdani speaking in Brooklyn on March 13, 2026, in announcing Taylor Brown as the first director of the Mayor\u2019s Office of LGBTQIA+ Affairs.Photo by Lloyd Mitchell<\/p>\n

Speaking to amNewYork at the event, Samuelsen said he has been pleased with Mamdani\u2019s first 72 days in office, calling the mayor \u201cexcellent\u201d so far on affordability and other working-class concerns. But he said Mamdani\u2019s political future \u2014 especially among blue-collar voters in parts of Brooklyn, Queens and the Bronx \u2014 will depend on whether he keeps that focus.<\/p>\n

Samuelsen\u2019s advice was blunt: stay out of the culture wars and keep the focus on what he called \u201cbread and butter, kitchen table issues, economic security issues.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cThe more Zohran interacts with people, and the more he focuses on economic security, the more his strength is going to grow,\u201d Samuelsen said.\n<\/p>\n

Samuelsen also pointed to the horse-carriage fight as an example of what he sees as Mamdani\u2019s practical approach so far. Asked about the issue, Samuelsen said Mamdani understands that roughly \u201c180 jobs\u201d are at stake \u2014 \u201cgood jobs, immigrant jobs,\u201d as he put it. He also said Mamdani had committed not to enter office with a presupposition that the horses were being mistreated and, according to Samuelsen, has stuck to that approach so far.<\/p>\n

\u201cZohran committed to me that he wouldn\u2019t go into this mayoralty with a presupposition that the horses are mistreated, that he wouldn\u2019t buy into that narrative,\u201d Samuelsen said. \u201cHe\u2019s honored that thus far.\u201d<\/p>\n

The issue became a major flashpoint near the end of the Adams administration, when former Mayor Eric Adams backed Ryder\u2019s Law, a City Council bill to phase out horse-drawn cabs starting June 1, 2026, and signed Executive Order 56 directing agencies to prepare for the industry\u2019s end and identify new employment options for affected workers. The move prompted an angry backlash from Samuelsen, who accused Adams of betraying carriage workers.<\/p>\n

Rama drama: Mayor defends First Lady again\u00a0<\/p>\n

Mamdani, on Friday, was again forced to come to his wife, first lady Rama Duwaji\u2019s, defense, following reports that she had illustrated an essay by a writer whose past social media posts have drawn accusations of antisemitism.\u00a0<\/a><\/p>\n

Speaking at an unrelated press conference in Brooklyn, Mamdani said the rhetoric described in the posts of Susan Abulhawa was \u201cunacceptable\u201d and \u201creprehensible,\u201d but said Duwaji was commissioned as a freelance illustrator by a third party, had never engaged with or met Abulhawa, and had not seen the posts in question.<\/p>\n

The New York Post reported that Abulhawa had described Jews in social media posts as \u201cvampires,\u201d \u201cdemons,\u201d and \u201cghouls,\u201d and had praised the Oct. 7, 2023, Hamas attack on Israel as \u201ca spectacular moment in history.\u201d<\/p>\n

The comments came just days after Mamdani also defended Duwaji over criticism of her social media likes on posts tied to the aftermath of the Oct. 7, 2023, Hamas attack on Israel. In that earlier response, he said she was not part of his administration and was a private person.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u2018Disheartening\u2019 week\u00a0of Islamophobic attacks<\/p>\n

Mamdani also addressed the anti-Muslim rhetoric directed at him this week, which he said had been \u201cdisheartening\u201d and reflected a broader climate of bigotry facing Muslim New Yorkers.<\/p>\n

Mamdani said the rhetoric was bigger than a personal attack on him as the city\u2019s first Muslim mayor and instead targeted the city\u2019s more than 1 million Muslim residents. He said New York should be \u201ca city that\u2019s free of bigotry.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cYesterday, I had the privilege of breaking my fast with hundreds of city workers who share the same faith as I do \u2026 and then for them to turn to their phone and open it up and see an elected official in that same city calling for their expulsion \u2014 it is not what those workers deserve, and it is not the kind of city that we want to build,\u201d he said.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Mamdani\u2019s comments came after a week of anti-Muslim attacks from local and national figures, including Rep. Brandon Gill of Texas, who called a photo of the mayor at an iftar \u201cstomach churning\u201d; Sen. Tommy Tuberville of Alabama, who reposted an image comparing Mamdani\u2019s Ramadan observance to the Sept. 11 attacks and wrote, \u201cThe enemy is inside the gates.\u201d<\/p>\n

Asked specifically about Queens Council Member Vickie Paladino, who this week filed a lawsuit to block the Council from disciplining her over social media post<\/a>s that led to an ethics case against her, Mamdani said he was \u201cheartened by the actions that the council has taken,\u201d but said the City Council should decide what happens next.<\/p>\n

Paladino has been accused of Islamophobia over social media posts that included a call for the \u201cexpulsion of Muslims from western nations\u201d and a claim that a photo of Mamdani praying with Muslim sanitation workers was \u201cpart of Islamic conquest.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n

Paladino is suing to block the Council from disciplining her over social media posts that led to an ethics case against her.\u00a0 The Ethics Committee charged her with disorderly behavior tied to posts on X, including one that said New York was \u201cunder foreign occupation\u201d after Mamdani appointed Faiza N. Ali as chief immigration officer. Possible penalties could range from censure and fines to suspension or expulsion.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Friday, March 13, marked the 72nd day of Zohran Mamdani\u2019s term as mayor. amNewYork is following Mamdani around…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":164237,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[8],"tags":[67543,67544,67545,67546,67547,4363,67548,8396,23338,60545,67549,67550,9,24,55,54,8975,56,7733,18510,26325,67551,8397,67552,82],"class_list":["post-164236","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-new-york-city","tag-and-managing-the-cityu2019s-finances-hereu2019s-a-summary-of-what-the-mayor-did-today","tag-antisemitism-controversy","tag-appointing-key-leaders-to-government-posts","tag-horse-carriage-workers","tag-irish-american-history","tag-islamophobia","tag-james-connolly-coalition","tag-john-samuelsen","tag-labor-unions","tag-march-12","tag-marked-the-71st-day-of-zohran-mamdaniu2019s-term-as-mayor-amnewyork-is-following-mamdani-around-his-first-100-days-in-office-we-are-closely-tracking-his-progress-on-fulfilling-campaign-promises","tag-muslim-new-yorkers","tag-new-york","tag-new-york-city","tag-new-york-city-headlines","tag-new-york-city-news","tag-new-york-city-politics","tag-ny","tag-nyc-mayor","tag-rama-duwaji","tag-thursday","tag-trade-unionism","tag-transport-workers-union","tag-working-class-issues","tag-zohran-mamdani"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/164236","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=164236"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/164236\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/164237"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=164236"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=164236"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=164236"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}